Sales logistics

[Dutch]

If it wasn't for the rest of this thread, that would be easily the worst post in this thread.

Twas the long way round, the shortcut..."I'll admit... But whats the break even? Sales wise

 

[LittleBigPlanet]

Soooo just found out from vgchartz that,
* ashes cricket 2009 sold 610,000 copies in actual fact (not including pc sales)

Kind of debunks this arguement

you can appreciate the challenges of selling 500,000 copies for a niche game like cricket...
Game Database, Best Selling Video Games, Game Sales, Million Sellers, Top Selling - VGChartz

By the way the actual sales numbers for DBC 14 are 160,000 (without the PC sales - somehow PC sales are not showing on the list) and not 500,000. That should give you some food for thought...
Game Database, Best Selling Video Games, Game Sales, Million Sellers, Top Selling - VGChartz

After all i did ask for anyone with actual facts at the beginning of this thread...

If anyone knows any facts about the sales logistics, I'd be really interested to hear them, because I'm just purely speculating. Just intrigued about how it all works..

But no.. not a single fact.. only that "apparently" theres no market for cricket games.

Look were all probaly in agreement that the guys at big ant probably wont make an absolute fortune off of this game but could we be helping them out a bit more by cutting out the middlemen, and buying directly from them? It will only be for our benifit in the long run.

 

[Chief]

It's hard to debunk anything because the public don't get access to exact sales, and professionals are bound by NDA's not to reveal the inside track.

But.

VG Charts figures vary in accuracy, so be careful about using them as facts: they are indicative perhaps (but sometimes can be waaaay off).
This doesn't necessarily cover digital sales AND also remember that you can't see what PRICE they were sold at (which becomes more important these days now that there's so much more flexibility in digital pricing).

On Ashes I can tell you:
The summers of 2005 and 2009 were the only times in living memory that Cricket has become truly mass market in the UK in a way it is unlikely to have again.
In 2009 the Wii, the biggest mass-market console of all time, was at its absolute peak (and over half of those sales were on the Wii).
The PC version sold *so* few that we didn't even bother releasing the sequel on the platform - It's come on a bit since, but is still leagues behind console.

 

[LittleBigPlanet]

It's hard to debunk anything because the public don't get access to exact sales, and professionals are bound by NDA's not to reveal the inside track.

But.

VG Charts figures vary in accuracy, so be careful about using them as facts: they are indicative perhaps (but sometimes can be waaaay off).
This doesn't necessarily cover digital sales AND also remember that you can't see what PRICE they were sold at (which becomes more important these days now that there's so much more flexibility in digital pricing).

On Ashes I can tell you:
The summers of 2005 and 2009 were the only times in living memory that Cricket has become truly mass market in the UK in a way it is unlikely to have again.
In 2009 the Wii, the biggest mass-market console of all time, was at its absolute peak (and over half of those sales were on the Wii).
The PC version sold *so* few that we didn't even bother releasing the sequel on the platform - It's come on a bit since, but is still leagues behind console.

Thanks chief! That sort of insight is priceless Great little read!

 

[Biggs]

After all i did ask for anyone with actual facts at the beginning of this thread...

...and then proceeded to make up your own?

Asking for sales figures or anything along those lines in a forum would be a ridiculous thing for a professional games developer to disclose to the public. If you didn't know that before beginning the thread, then you're prolly not the right person to be offering marketing or sales tips.

But no.. not a single fact.. only that "apparently" theres no market for cricket games.

That's literally not what you were told on the first page of this thread below...

I also wouldnt worry too much about Bigant financially, they seem to be doing well and releasing a lot of games! Just grab a couple of copies of DBC17/14 and spread the word thats what we can do!

You're creating some weird "crisis on planetcricket" where there isn't one. Big Ant is doing just fine. DBC1st was a success, critically and by all accounts was good enough commercially to be worthy of a sequel.

Literally no-one has said there is no market for cricket games. What you've been told, repeatedly, is that market is incredibly niche and no major developer has been able to gain any traction or growth in this area*. What Big Ant have done is identify the gap in the market for a guerrilla-style approach to develop games for niche sports, using a big license (League) as their major revenue generator to funnel money into their smaller IP's like Cricket and Lacrosse, amongst others. What we're lucky to have is a CEO like Ross who has a legit commitment to the sport of cricket and a passion for it... something which larger games developers do not have at the top.

Your assertion we should...

be helping them out a bit more by cutting out the middlemen, and buying directly from them?

...is about a year late and an utterly pointless suggestion because they've had Don Bradman Cricket for sale on their website since the game launched on Steam

Before you bash the keyboard and say "oh I mean the console version" they're a games DEVELOPER not operating an online retail store and the costs involved of selling physical copies of the game would negate any profit they make of the console version, once you factor in staff time and postage. Developers make less money off console versions anyway! There's no benefit for them to sell physical copies if they have existing relationships with retail stores such as EB Games (they do and a pretty good one by all accounts) who will provide in-store promotional activities like early access play sessions,

And what "middle-men" would you cut out anyway? Game stores like EB Games? Online retailers? International retailers? ...then you're investing in an entire retail arm of your development company responsible for shipping your product from one locaton to the world? That's a HUGE investment and you then have the "eggs in one basket" scenario and no longer have signage in any major retailer for your product... or any future products you might have because you've just gone and bitten the hand that feeds you by launching, essentially, more competition in the hugely competitive retail market!

Good luck getting those in-store play sessions... you'll leave Matt standing in a half-empty warehouse in Port Melbourne with two LCD screens and a controller in his hand. I doubt that would have the same impact as the major EB Games Store on Swanston St.

The reality is...

Cricket gaming is an incredibly niche sport and devoted fans of cricket gaming, like us, are an even smaller number. There's next to no benefit for Big Ant to be as inclusive of us as they have been, yet they continue to do so because they care about the community here and are members of it. We've earned a healthy amount of respect between both parties and the owner of this website now works for them. Good track record, you might say.

Where I think we as the wider community can draw a line is threads like this insinuating they don't know what they're doing. They do... and there's no point in suggesting stupid stuff like "start a YouTube Channel" where nobody in their right mind would think that's a better way to promote your game than, I dunno, hiring a professional company to promote your game. Say what you want about TruBlu and their failure with DBC in the UK, they had signs in stores everywhere I went in NZ and Australia, the game was featured front-and-centre on the EB games website, retail store staff knew all about it and it got reviewed and publicized on plenty of major game review sites. ...including US-based ones which is incredibly rare!

Our job as a community isn't to invent "problems" that we need to solve for the marketing of cricket games. Our job as a community is to provide feedback as comprehensively and constructively as possible to edge developers in the direction we want them moving in terms of the games that are being made, so they're good games that people want to play. Why? Because then we're being taken seriously as a community. Threads like this only serve to undermine our value to the dozens of professional people in the games industry that browse this site.

Posting fart jokes and memes is one thing... Dissimulation of marketing and sales concepts in the guise of helping a developer is ludicrous and frankly embarrassing if you have no knowledge of what you're talking about.

I am out of this now.

Stick with that.



* What we have been told is BigAnt produced DBC14 as a loss-leader product, planned accordingly for that product to not be profitable but as a tool to grow the cricket games market, launch their own IP and for any sequel/s to be the revenue-leading product. They have a plan in place to achieve this because they make games for a living and know what they're doing.

 

[CaptainOZ]

Hookers and blow cost a lot of money in Melbourne.

Especially the ones who are packin' heat, amIright?

 

[Biggs]

The only ones I know are lovely, upstanding ladies of Melb... I mean... what? I know nothing. Nothing.

 

[blockerdave]

cut out the middle man has been the cry of the economically illiterate moron throughout the ages.

marketing. distribution. publishing. online stores - these are entire industries of themselves.

 

[Biggs]

Um. Did you even read what I wrote? That wasn't even directed at you. I just used your post as a good example of someone in the thread telling this doofus what was up, ie; Nothing.

 

[grkrama]

Um. Did you even read what I wrote? That wasn't even directed at you. I just used your post as a good example of someone in the thread telling this doofus what was up, ie; Nothing.

oops that's a big mess up by me...im just used to reading posts below quotes.. jeez that's my comprehendo fuk up, this is what happens wen i read something without my morning coffee!

I fully apologise for my foolishness and stupidity to the noble @Biggs

 

[Biggs]

The tarring, feathering and hanging at dawn has been cancelled until further notice.

 

[LittleBigPlanet]

The tarring, feathering and hanging at dawn has been cancelled until further notice.

Thats a pretty demented sense of humour , just pointing that out._.

 

[Biggs]

You must be new here.

 

[LittleBigPlanet]

Nah not really been reading these forums for quite awhile._. And thats a pretty standard respone by you.

 

[Biggs]